


Love/Hate

by la_muerta



Series: Flash Bang #1 - Bingo (Team Green) [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Crushes, Internalized Homophobia, Jock Jace Wayland, Light Angst, Love/Hate, M/M, Misunderstandings, Nerd Simon Lewis, One Shot, fic bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 13:25:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14379576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_muerta/pseuds/la_muerta
Summary: Simon has just been assigned Jace as a project partner for what might possibly the biggest year-long project of their high school life. And he thought it couldn't get worse than that.For the Shadowhunters Hiatus Flash Bang #1 - BingoSquare #16: Project Partners





	Love/Hate

 

 

Simon had been stoked about winning his D&D campaign over the weekend, but now he was almost certain that he'd used up all his luck for the year on it. And it just wasn't worth the price, when that price was having to be Jace Herondale's project partner for what was possibly the biggest year-long project of their high school life.  

The thing was, Jace Herondale wasn't just any run-of-the-mill football jock who picked on people like Simon just because Simon wore specs and liked math better than gym. There was _history_ there. They'd been in the same kindergarten class, and Jace had been jealous of Simon's friendship with Clary - that was when the bullying had begun. Then Jace had gone away because of some trouble with family, and Simon had had a blessedly Jace-free elementary school experience, until Clary had moved away with her mum, and Jace had moved back - floppy blond hair and more muscular than any 17-year-old had a right to be, and all _interesting_ with his mismatched eyes and flirty smile, and stupid letterman jacket, and-

Ok, so maybe the fact that Jace had bullied Simon when they were barely more than toddlers wasn't the only problem.

But the fact that Jace was a homophobic asshole was certainly a far bigger problem than all of that. 

He'd been prepared to force the issue though, but Jace had disappeared after the assignments had been given out, and Simon didn't really have many common classes with Jace that day. So when he saw Jace coming down the hallway after school when he was dumping stuff in his locker, he decided to seize the moment. 

"Hey! Herondale!"

Jace froze. Then turned slowly to look at Simon, the expression on his face clearly telling Simon to fuck off, or else. Well, tough luck.  

Simon squared his shoulders. "I need to talk to you about our project."

Jace's best friend, a dark-haired, freakishly tall boy who was also on the football team, raised an eyebrow at Jace. Jace indicated that he should go ahead without him and walked towards Simon. 

Simon had promised himself that he wasn't going to be intimidated, but old instincts died hard - having his kindergarten nemesis and tormentor stalking towards him purposefully like that was setting all his self-preservation alarm bells off. He backed into the lockers - Jace kept walking towards him, until he was so close to him that his aftershave was making Simon want to sneeze. 

"I'm not doing the fucking project. So leave me alone," Jace said in a dangerous, low voice.  

"Look, this project is 30 percent of our grade. I'm not letting you pull down my GPA because you think you're too cool for school," Simon fumed.

"You do it, then, since you actually care. And I'll sign my name on whatever crap you come up with," Jace sneered.

"No. I'm not doing all the work and letting you claim the credit for it. And if you don't do your share of the work, I'll tell Principal Penhallow," Simon hissed.

Jace punched the locker next to Simon's head hard enough to dent it, and Simon jumped.

"I'd like to see you try," Jace growled. 

"Yeah, punch me, why don't you? Maybe if you get suspended, I can get another project partner," Simon snarled back. 

"Then what do you want from me?"

"Just one meeting. We split the work, do it on our own, collate it at the end. We won't even need to see each other to do that, just email it to me. Your only chance to have the pleasure of my company and undivided attention," Simon said sarcastically.  

Jace glared at him for a beat, then surprised him by saying, "Fine. But I'm not meeting you in school, I don't want to be seen anywhere near you. I have a reputation to uphold." 

Yeah, as a jackass. But Simon wisely kept that to himself. "Town library," he suggested.  

"Let me amend my previous statement - I don't want to be seen anywhere _in_ _public_ with you," Jace drawled.

"Your place, then." 

"No," Jace said, voice suddenly sharp. 

"Why the hell not?"

"My grandma's home. And trust me, you don't want to be there," Jace said through gritted teeth. 

"Ok, my place," Simon suggested reluctantly. 

"I can't wait," Jace said sarcastically.

  

 

They walked out to the carpark, Jace sulking about ten feet behind Simon. Simon usually cycled to school, and he'd figured that he could go first and Jace could follow in his car since he seemed to be deathly afraid of being seen together with Simon. But when he stopped at the bike racks, Jace made an impatient noise and grabbed him by the elbow to pull him towards the cars.  

"Hey! What the-"

"We're taking my car. I'm not following after you while you cycle slowly there."

"But my bike!" 

"Leave your bike here. You can get it tomorrow," Jace said impatiently. 

"Yeah? And how am I supposed to get to school tomorrow, then?" Simon snapped. 

"You can walk," Jace smiled unpleasantly, and practically shoved him into the passenger seat. 

There was deadly silence in the car all the way there, only broken by Simon's curt directions to his house. Simon's sister was away at college and his mum was working, so he let them in and dumped his bag on the kitchen table, then took out his laptop, eager to get this meeting over and done with. Jace was walking around curiously - he poked a ceramic knick knack on a shelf and it almost fell to the floor. 

"Didn't your mother teach you not to touch things that don't belong to you?" Simon scowled. 

Jace stopped in his tracks, back still turned to Simon. "Never knew her. She died giving birth to me." 

"Oh. Sorry." _Way to put your foot in your mouth, Lewis._  

Jace settled at the kitchen table after that, twirling his pen in a bored way, not taking any notes (because of course he probably expected Simon to email them to him and why hadn't they just done this over email, Jace probably wasn't going to do any of the work and Simon would have to do it all by himself anyway who was he kidding), but nodding along to Simon's suggestions almost absent-mindedly. Then Simon may have gone on a tangent ranting about how society needed to do more to destigmatise mental illness, and he'd looked up to find Jace looking almost fondly at him. Suddenly, Jace leaned forward, grabbed the back of his head, and kissed him.

Simon may have made an embarrassing squeaky noise like a bath toy. Then instinct kicked in, and Simon promptly punched him in the face and accidentally got him on the nose. There was a sickening cracking sound and Jace cried out in pain.  

"Shit! I'm so sorry!" Simon said on reflex. _Was_ he sorry? He hadn't expected to be kissed, but he didn't exactly _mind_ it...   

"No. I deserved that," Jace said quietly, still gingerly pinching his bleeding, possibly-broken nose.

He grabbed his bag off the table and was out of the door before Simon could get his jumbled thoughts and emotions in order enough to even say anything.  

"Fuck," Simon cursed with feeling. What the hell had that been?

Well, he supposed they could forget about ever completing the project now. 


End file.
